The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers part 36 pps

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331Chapter 11Sharpening Techniques
The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Step Three:
Now, choose a medium-sized, soft-edged
brush from the Brush Picker in the Options
Bar, and then simply take the Sharpen tool
and paint over just the areas you want
to appear sharp (this is really handy for
portraits like this, because you can avoid
areas you want to remain soft, like skin,
but then super-sharpen areas you want to
be really nice and crisp, like her belt). Since
this tool is doing a lot of math behind the
scenes, depending on how much you paint,
you might have to wait a moment or two
before the final sharpening is revealed. Back
in the CS4 version of this book, I used to
teach a more complex version of this idea
of “painting with sharpness,” because we
couldn’t use the Sharpen tool back then—
it would just ruin your image. Instead, we
had to super-sharpen a duplicate layer,
hide it behind a black layer mask, and paint
the sharpening back in where we wanted it.
Step Four:
Here’s a before/after of the image after
painting over areas that you’d normally
sharpen, like her clothes, hair, and belt,
while avoiding all areas of flesh tone.
Note: One of the tricks the pros use to

get incredibly sharp-looking photos is
to apply their sharpening once, and then
go back and spot sharpen only those
areas in the photo that can hold a lot
of sharpening (for example, areas that
contain chrome, metal, steel, buttons on
clothing, jewelry, or even your subject’s
eyes in some cases). So, first apply the
regular Unsharp Mask filter to the entire
image, then go back with the Sharpen
tool and paint over just those areas that
can really take a lot of sharpening. It makes
the whole photo look that much sharper,
even though you just super-sharpened a
few key areas.
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332
Chapter 11 Sharpening Techniques
The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Although it hasn’t caught on like many of us hoped, the Smart Sharpen filter offers
some of the most advanced sharpening available in Photoshop CS5 (along with the
newly updated Sharpen tool), because within it is a special sharpening algorithm
that’s better than the one found in the ever popular Unsharp Mask filter—you
just have to know where to turn it on. Because Unsharp Mask is still so popular
(old habits are hard to break), I find that I generally switch to Smart Sharpen
when I run into a photo that’s visibly out of focus.
When to Use the
Smart Sharpen

Filter Instead
Step One:
Go under the Filter menu, under Sharpen,
and choose Smart Sharpen. This filter
is in Basic mode by default, so there are
only two sliders: Amount controls the
amount of sharpening (I know, “duh!”)
and Radius determines how many pixels
the sharpening will affect. The default
Amount setting of 100% seems too high
to me for everyday use, so I usually find
myself lowering it to between 60% and
70%. The Radius is set at 1 by default,
and I rarely change that, but for this image,
I raised it to 2.
Step Two:
Below the Radius slider is the Remove
pop-up menu (shown here), which lists
the three types of blurs you can reduce.
Gaussian Blur (the default) applies the
same sharpening you get using the regular
Unsharp Mask filter. Motion Blur is use-
less, unless you can accurately determine
the angle of blur in your image (which
I’ve yet to be able to do even once). The
third one is the one I recommend: Lens
Blur. This uses a sharpening algorithm
created by Adobe’s engineers that’s bet-
ter at detecting edges, so it creates fewer
color halos than you’d get with the other

choices, and overall I think it gives you
better sharpening for most images.
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333Chapter 11Sharpening Techniques
Continued
The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Step Three:
The only downside to choosing Lens Blur
is that it makes the filter take a little
longer to “do its thing.” (That’s why it’s
not the default choice, even though it
provides better-quality sharpening.) After
you choose Lens Blur, go to the bottom
of the dialog and you’ll see a checkbox for
More Accurate. It gives you (according to
Adobe) more accurate sharpening by
applying multiple iterations of the sharp-
ening. I leave More Accurate turned on
nearly all the time. (After all, who wants
“less accurate” sharpening?) Note: If you’re
working on a large file, the More Accurate
option can cause the filter to process
slower, so it’s up to you if it’s worth the
wait (I think it is). By the way, the use
of the More Accurate checkbox is one
of those topics that Photoshop users
debate back and forth in online forums.
For regular everyday sharpening it might
be overkill, but again, the reason I use

Smart Sharpen is because the photo
is visibly blurry, slightly out of focus,
or needs major sharpening to save.
So I leave this on all the time.
Step Four:
If you find yourself applying a setting
such as this over and over again, you can
save these settings and add them to the
Settings pop-up menu at the top of the
dialog by clicking on the floppy disk icon
to the right of the pop-up menu. (Why
a floppy disk icon? I have no idea.) This
brings up a dialog for you to name your
saved settings, and then click OK. Now,
the next time you’re in the Smart Sharpen
filter dialog and you want to instantly call
up your saved settings, just choose it from
the Settings pop-up menu (as shown here).
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Chapter 11 Sharpening Techniques
The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Step Five:
If you click the Advanced radio button, it
reveals two additional tabs with controls
for reducing the sharpening in just the
shadow or just the highlight areas that
are applied to the settings you chose back
in the Basic section. That’s why in the

Shadow and Highlight tabs, the top slider
says “Fade Amount” rather than just
“Amount.” As you drag the Fade Amount
slider to the right, you’re reducing the
amount of sharpening already applied,
which can help reduce any halos in the
highlights. (Note: Without increasing the
amount of fade, you can’t tweak the
Tonal Width and Radius amounts. They
only kick in when you increase the Fade
Amount.) Thankfully, I rarely have had to
use these Advanced controls, so 99% of
my work in Smart Sharpen is done using
the Basic controls.
Before After
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SCOTT KELBY
335Chapter 11Sharpening Techniques
The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Continued
Step One:
Open a photo that needs some extreme
sharpening, like this photo taken at an
airshow. Duplicate the Background layer
by pressing Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J), as
shown here.
Step Two:
Go under the Filter menu, under Other,
and choose High Pass. You use this filter

to accentuate the edges in the photo, and
making those edges stand out can really
give the impression of mega-sharpening.
I start by dragging the Radius slider all
the way to the left (everything turns gray
onscreen), then I start dragging it over to
the right. For non-HDR images, I don’t
drag it all that far—I just drag until I see
the edges of objects in the photos appear
clearly, and then I stop. The farther you
drag, the more intense the sharpening will
be, but if you drag too far, you start to get
these huge glows and the effect starts to
fall apart, so don’t get carried away. Now,
click OK to apply the sharpening.
I don’t normally include the same technique twice in the same book,
but if you read the HDR chapter, I included High Pass sharpening there too,
because it’s become kind of synonymous with HDR processing. Of course, what
I’m concerned about is that you skipped over the HDR chapter altogether, and
came here to the sharpening chapter, and you’d be wondering why the very
popular High Pass sharpening technique (which creates extreme sharpening)
wasn’t included in the book. Well, it’s so good, it is covered twice. :)
High Pass
Sharpening
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Chapter 11 Sharpening Techniques
The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Step Three:

In the Layers panel, change the layer
blend mode of this layer from Normal to
Hard Light. This removes the gray color
from the layer, but leaves the edges accen-
tuated, making the entire photo appear
much sharper (as seen here). If the sharp-
ening seems too intense, you can control
the amount of the effect by lowering the
layer’s Opacity in the Layers panel.
Step Four:
If you want even more sharpening, dupli-
cate the High Pass layer to double-up the
sharpening. If that’s too much, lower the
Opacity of the top layer. One problem with
High Pass sharpening is that you might get
a glow along some edges (like the one along
the bottom of the plane in Step Three). The
trick to getting rid of that is to: (1) press
Command-E (PC: Ctrl-E) to merge the
two High Pass layers, (2) click the Add Layer
Mask button at the bottom of the panel,
(3) get the Brush tool (B), and with a small
soft-edged brush and your Foreground color
set to black, (4) paint right along the edge,
revealing the original, unsharpened edge
with no glow. A before/after is below.
Before
For more sharpening,
duplicate the layer
Merge the two layers

and add a layer mask
After
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337Chapter 11Sharpening Techniques
The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
If you wind up doing all your edits from right within Camera Raw, and then
you save straight to a JPEG or TIFF right from Camera Raw, as well (skipping
the jump to Photoshop altogether), you’ll still want to sharpen your image for
how the image will be viewed (onscreen, in print, etc.). This is called “output
sharpening” (the sharpening you do in Camera Raw’s Detail panel is called
“input sharpening,” because it’s designed to replace the sharpening that would
have been done in your camera if you had shot in JPEG or TIFF mode).
Step One:
Before we do this output sharpening, it’s
important to note that this sharpening
only kicks in if you’re going to save your
image from right here within Camera Raw
by clicking the Save Image button in the
bottom-left corner of the Camera Raw
window. If you click the Open Image or
Done button, the output sharpening is not
applied. Okay, now that you know, you find
output sharpening by clicking on the line
of text (which looks like a Web link) below
the Preview area (it’s circled here in red).
Step Two:
First, choose how you want this image
sharpened from the Sharpen For pop-up
menu near the bottom: For Screen is for

images you’re going to post on the Web,
email to a client, or present in a slide show.
If the image is going to be printed, choose
whether you’ll be printing to Glossy Paper
or Matte Paper. Lastly, choose the amount
of sharpening you want from the Amount
pop-up menu. Camera Raw will do the
math based on the image’s resolution, your
paper choice, and amount choice (I never
choose Low, by the way) to calculate the
exact right amount of output sharpening.
Note: When you click OK, sharpening stays
on from now on. To turn it off, choose
None from the Sharpen For pop-up menu.
Output Sharpening
in Camera Raw
SCOTT KELBY
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338
The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Photoshop Killer Tips
Chapter 11 Sharpening Techniques
Content-Aware Fill Tips
If you selected an image and tried
Content-Aware Fill on it, but you’re
not happy with the results, try one of
these two tips: (1) Press Command-Z
(PC: Ctrl-Z) to Undo the Fill, then try
Content-Aware Fill again. It’s somewhat

random in choosing the area it samples
to fill its area from, so simply trying it
again might do the trick (this works
more often than you might think). (2)
Try to expand your selection a little
bit. Once you’ve put a selection around
what you want to remove, then go
under the Select menu, under Modify,
and choose Expand, and try expanding
your selection by 3 or 4 pixels, and try
Content-Aware Fill again. It just might
do the trick.
If One of Your Tools
Starts Acting Weird
chances are something has changed
in the options for that tool (up in the
Options Bar) that may not be obvious
by just looking at the Options Bar. In
that case, you can reset the tool to its
factory defaults by Right-clicking directly
on the little down-facing arrow next
to the tool’s icon at the far left side of
the Options Bar, and a pop-up menu
will appear where you can choose to
reset your current tool, or all your tools.
Merge to HDR Pro Can Make Killer
B&W Images
I know that when you say “HDR” most
folks picture those surreal, super-vibrant
images that you see all over the Web,

which is why you may not think of Merge
to HDR Pro as a choice for creating
black-and-white images, but it actually
does a pretty amazing job (and although
most of the built-in presets that come
with Merge to HDR Pro kinda stink, the
Monochromatic (B&W) presets aren’t
half bad. Give this a try the next time you
shoot a bracketed image.
When You’re Making Selections
Near the Edge of Your
Document
When you’re making a selection
(with the Polygonal Lasso or regular
Lasso tool), and you reach the edge
of your document window, you don’t
have to release and start over—just
press-and-hold the Spacebar, and
your Lasso tool temporarily switches
to the Hand tool, so you can move
over enough to complete your selec-
tion, then release the Spacebar and
it switches you back to the Lasso
tool, and (here’s what’s so cool) your
selection-in-process has been frozen
in place, so now you can pick right
up where you were.
Are You Using All Your RAM?
A lot of folks are wondering what all
the fuss is about the whole 64-bit

version of Photoshop. Well, it’s all
Giving Your Raw Image to Someone
Else (Along with Your Edits)
If you’ve edited a photo in Camera Raw,
and you give the RAW file to a client,
they won’t see the edits you’ve made to
the file, unless: (a) you include the sepa-
rate XMP file along with your RAW file (it
should be found right beside the RAW file
in your image folder), or (2) you save the
file in DNG format in the Format pop-up
menu in Camera Raw’s Save Options dia-
log (DNG is Adobe’s open-source format
for RAW images, and it embeds your
edits in the DNG file).
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The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Photoshop Killer Tips
Chapter 11Sharpening Techniques
about RAM. Running Photoshop
in 32-bit mode means it you can
only access 4GB of RAM, no mat-
ter how many gigs of RAM you have
installed in your computer. If you run
CS5 in 64-bit (which is new on the
Mac in CS5), you can literally assign
hundreds of gigs of RAM (which is
only necessary if you’re working on

really, really huge files, by the way, but
it’s nice to know it’s there). Anyway,
that’s the deal. If you work with big
files and need to use more RAM to
keep those big files moving along,
then you need to make sure you’re
running 64-bit mode (on a Mac, click
on the Photoshop icon, then press
Command-I and turn off the Open
in 32-bit Mode checkbox).
Retouching Tip for Liquify
If you’re using the Liquify filter to do
some retouching on a portrait, you
can make sure you don’t accidentally
move an area you don’t want to affect
by freezing it, and there are freeze tools
in Liquify, but it’s easier to just put a
selection around the area you want to
adjust first, then bring up the Liquify
filter, and any area outside your selected
area is automatically frozen. (You’ll see a
rectangle with your selection in it in the
Preview area, and the areas outside your
selection will be masked in red.)
Bringing Back Picture Package
Back in Photoshop CS4, Adobe removed
some plug-in features for Photoshop,
like the Picture Package plug-in (for
putting multiple photos on the same
page, like two 4x6s and 8 wallet-size),

and the Contact Sheet II plug-in, and
they removed the Extract Filter, and
a few more. If you miss these guys,
you can bring them back, as Adobe
has made then downloadable from
their website. Just go to www.adobe
.com and, in the Search field, type in
“Optional Plug-ins for CS5,” and you’ll
find them in two seconds.
Keeping Your Camera
Settings to Yourself
If you’re posting an image on the Web, or
sending an image to a client, you might
not want to have all your camera settings,
and camera serial number, included in the
image where anyone can view it (after all,
does your client really need to know you
shot this at f/5.6 at 800 ISO?). So, to keep
your camera settings to yourself, just press
Command-A (PC: Ctrl-A) to select
your entire image, then copy it into
memory. Now press Command-N (PC:
Ctrl-N) and Photoshop will automatically
create a new document that is the exact
size, resolution, and color mode as the
image you copied into memory. Next,
paste your image into this new blank
document. Now press Command-E (PC:
Ctrl-E) to flatten the image, and you can
send this file anywhere without having

your camera data in the file. However,
I would go under the File menu and
choose File Info, then click on the
Description tab, and I’d enter my copy-
right info in the Copyright section.
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Photo by Scott Kelby Exposure: 1/125 sec | Focal Length: 24mm | Aperture Value: ƒ/6.3
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